Pay special attention to your ‘dash’ periodWe were in the Hot Springs High School class before the one that became famous. Our class didn’t have a reunion at the White House, and we didn’t get invited to the one that did. But we got together again over the past weekend for what I called our Medicare-Social Security reunion. It has been a little more than 50 years since the Class of 1963 walked across the stage of the HSHS field house to accept our diplomas, and a few years ago we disco...

D.C. dysfunction grows from lack of compromiseIt is hard to imagine how Washington D.C. could be more dysfunctional that it is right now. As I’m writing, Republicans and Democrats are digging in, insisting they are right and the other side is wrong. Meanwhile, most Americas are losing interest in the partisan political argument and strategizing; they care more about whether the trains will run on time. The whole situation reminds me of a scene from a Broadway play, “Into the Woods.” The p...

Dear JohnHey there, Mr. Speaker. Good to hear that you’ve decided that the United States shouldn’t default on its obligations, and that you’re willing to violate the “Hastert Rule” — the informal rule that the Speaker shouldn’t bring up a bill that doesn’t have the support of a majority of Republicans, even if the bill does have the support of a majority of the members of Congress — to protect the full faith and credit of the United States. But what ab...

Obama attacking economy for own gainNever before has an American president threatened and risked the U.S. economy and financial markets the way Barack Obama has in recent days. For his own narrow political ends, Obama and his minions have actually accused the Republican party of deliberately provoking a Treasury debt default because they don’t agree with the Obama position on the continuing budget resolution and the debt ceiling. “As reckless as a government shutdown is ... an e...

Pie makers storiesRecently this column touched on the importance of regional baking traditions. At the McElroy House: Organization for Folklife, Oral History, and Community Action, myself and Marie Williams have been working on a series of events highlighting the stories of a few of our region’s local pie makers to be featured in our Pies for Pavement event in partnership with the Russellville Community Market. Below are just a few of the pie makers’ stories. W...

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Meredith Martin-MoatsThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

State tries to find balance on health lawLITTLE ROCK — Arkansas receives final approval to expand coverage to 250,000 low-income workers using a key part of the federal health care law. Days later, some of the same Republicans who crafted that plan reject efforts to promote the exchanges set up under the federal health care law. The state’s Republican congressmen and senator back efforts to tie defunding the federal health care law to spending bills, prompting a federal government sh...

What should be done about students like Lidia?When leaders of eight Arkansas higher learning institutions sent a letter to Congress recently calling for immigration reform, among their arguments was that undocumented students brought to America as children struggle to access college — a waste of their talents, both for them and for society. They didn’t mention specific students, but they were talking about people like Lidia Mondragon. Lidia is a native of Guerrero, Mexico, where her famil...

Your community, your newspaper, your lifeEditor’s note: Oct. 6-12 is National Newspaper Week. The Courier is celebrating the week by running opinion columns and editorial cartoons that remind us all of the important role newspapers play in our communities. As newspaper executives struggle over whether the news should be digital first, tablet first, SMS first or print first, readers know exactly what they want their local newspaper to be — community first. Reading a newspaper is not l...

One thing we can’t hideThe famous Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle once had this to say about language, “Language is called the Garment of Thought: however, it should rather be, Language is the Flesh-Garment, the Body, of Thought.” It is often said there is one thing we cannot hide except by silence, and that is the use of our language. When we open our mouths and begin to speak, we proclaim to the world where we are on the pyramid of economic and soci...

Shutdown beats the alternativeYes, it is frustrating. The government should run smoothly and efficiently, going about its business and getting things done without much pomp and circumstance. Having the government shut down, well, it’s inconvenient for many of us — no museums, zoos or national parks. For others, who either work in nonessential government jobs (and who are not working and not getting paid) it’s more than an inconvenience. Just imagine if you were suddenly to...

Uncle Sam can’t refuse to pay billsAs this column is being written, the government is shut down, which is bad, but temporary. The bigger debate is over raising the debt limit, which will be reached on about Oct. 17. The consequences of failing to increase it would be permanent, would cost taxpayers trillions of dollars, and would benefit mostly the foreign creditors who loan our government money. The debt limit was created in 1917 and has been raised routinely, including 18 tim...

A political reflectionMy father was a farmer and yellow-dog Republican all his life. I heard him say innumerable times that the only vote he ever cast that he was ashamed of was the one he cast for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. I do not know when it dawned on me as to the irony of the situation, but I observed the circumstance in 1936 when I was eight years old. We had a neighbor in Indiana that was extremely poor. He drove a 1925 Model T Ford, and in the back win...

Auditors cite lack of records in UA reportOne of the most disturbing things about the Arkansas Legislative Joint Auditing Committee’s investigative report on the financial practices of the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville Division of University Advancement is that the picture could be even worse except for the lack of records. Why that’s the case remains to be seen. In fact, a Washington County prosecutor has begun an investigation into accusations that UAF Chancellor G. David Gear...

Obamacare is here for nowThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — has dominated the political conversation for the last five years since the legislation was introduced in 2009. Now, at long last, key parts of it are here, but for how long may depend on factors outside either political party’s control. Obamacare has many complicated moving parts. Even an attorney specializing in health care legislation would have trouble dissecting all...

I guess it doesn’t matterI’m a newspaper reporter. It isn’t good for the stomach, but it can be good for reflection on those quiet, cool autumn night shifts in the middle of the week when nothing’s on fire and the street crime is of the ignorable, drug-driven, non-fatal kind. And the circa-1987 florescent lights in the newsroom buzz like sleepy bees, and it’s time to get my baloney sandwich out of the crowded office fridge. And, because I am not without some guile whe...

What conservatives can learn from the popeBeing neither a Catholic nor a religious scholar, I’m in no position to offer opinions on the Roman Catholic Church or its doctrine. Yet it seems to me that conservatives might learn a thing or two from Pope Francis when it comes to messaging and tone. The pope, it is widely reported, has “recast the Catholic Church’s image” by focusing on its “inviting, merciful aspects” — even “shocking,” as The Washington Post put it — to a planeload of rep...

Elections revisitedSept. 17 marked the end of the election year in the Arkansas River Valley — unless, of course, you’re running for a state or national office, then you never stop running, even if you already serve one office and launch a campaign for another. Russellville had its busiest election year in a while with one election in August and two in September. The school elections were scheduled, of course, but we want to focus today on the Walmart zoning ord...

Insurance issue tests Beebe, lawmakersLITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe and lawmakers agree that they need to fix the state’s teacher insurance system before rate hikes of up to 50 percent hit next year. Turning that consensus into a plan they can pass during a special session is another matter. Though Beebe seems to be moving closer to call lawmakers back to the Capitol in the coming weeks, the agreement he says is required first on both the short and long-term solutions nee...

History of Mount Nebo women governmentWhile working on some research for another publication I began reading about the history of Mount Nebo, the 1,350-foot mountain near Dardanelle. Today a portion of the mountain is owned by the Arkansas State Parks and is a popular tourist destination for hiking, camping, and skydiving. But back in the late 1800s and early 1900s the mountain was home to multiple privately owned hotels and a local city government. Many of the region’s wealthy, a...

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Meredith Martin-MoatsThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Praying for the persecutedAbout three dozen people gathered on the Capitol steps Sept. 26 to pray for a man they have never met who is languishing in a prison on the other side of the world. Pastor Saeed Abedini, 33, a naturalized Iranian-American Christian living in Idaho, was arrested one year to the day earlier while visiting Iran. His crime was building an orphanage. Even though the project had been approved by the authorities, because he is a Christian, he was “un...